The present invention relates to forming solid blocks of a cryogenic material, and is particularly directed to a method and apparatus for forming carbon dioxide particles into blocks.
Carbon dioxide has many uses in its various phases. Solid carbon dioxide has long been used to maintain items, such as food or beverages at desirable cool temperatures. In certain food service applications, solid blocks, or cakes, of carbon dioxide have been used, disposed within an given volume adjacent the items sought to be maintained at or below a desired temperature.
The airline industry is an example of this use of carbon dioxide blocks, wherein carbon dioxide blocks of a preselected size are disposed within one or more compartments of the food carts, thereby keeping the food served to air passengers at or below the desired temperature. In order to meet such need for carbon dioxide blocks, it is known to cut carbon dioxide blocks of the desired size from larger blocks as well as to form the desired sized blocks from carbon dioxide particles. There is a need for flexibility to be able to provide different sized blocks matched to the specific compartment sizes.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus device for forming particles into blocks which produces accurately sized blocks and which allows the size of the blocks to be changed with minimal down time. Although the present invention will be described herein in connection with carbon dioxide, it will be understood that the present invention is not limited in use or application to carbon dioxide.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiment of the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.